DREAMBOAT

Six feet tall, 185 pounds and dressed to amuse — that’s Badger High School senior Kerry Lofy (in the little black number), and his prom date, Victor Anderson.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Crossing the line?

Lake Geneva student who wore dress to prom is suspended, fined $249

By MEG KISSINGER and MEG JONES

Kerry Lofy figures that girls get to wear dresses to the Lake Geneva Badger High School prom, so why couldn't he?

Six feet tall, 185 pounds and dressed to amuse — that’s Badger High School senior Kerry Lofy (in the little black number), and his prom date, Victor Anderson.

But now that he has been suspended from school for three days, is being forced to miss his last track meet (and a chance for the school's pole vaulting record) and has to pay a $249 ticket for disorderly conduct, Lofy's not so sure he picked the right battle to fight.

...Lofy said he thought it would be funny to show up at his senior prom Saturday wearing a dress. Lofy went to the prom with Victor Anderson, a friend. Lofy says the school did not have any problem letting two males attend prom together, but school officials who had heard of Lofy's plan to wear a black dress warned him that he would not be allowed in the dance if he showed up dressed as a woman.

Lofy says he is not gay. He says he agreed to go with Anderson, who is gay, because Anderson is his friend and he wanted to go to the prom but didn't have a date. Anderson confirms this. Lofy concedes that he was uneasy going to prom with another male, and wearing a dress was a way to deflect other people's suspicions.

"I thought it would be funny," he said.

Late last week, word got out about Lofy's plans. Lofy says the school's associate principal stopped him three times in the hallway on Friday to warn him not to wear a dress. Lofy, a member of the school's track, ski, powerlifting and soccer teams, says he is known for his outrageous fashion sense. Last year, he showed up to prom wearing a tuxedo he made out of duct tape.

School administrators warned Lofy not to ruin prom for others, Lofy says. "It's not your prom," he says the associate principal told him.

But Lofy went ahead anyway, borrowing a girlfriend's black, stretchy, spaghetti-strap dress. He bought a blond wig, open-toed platform sandals, blue earrings and a necklace at Goodwill. He used one of his mom's purses to carry his wallet and car keys.

"I looked like Marilyn Monroe," he says.

Lofy picked up Anderson, they exchanged flowers - a pink-and-white wrist corsage for Lofy, and a boutonniere for Anderson - and then dined at the Newport Grill with three other couples. Lofy ordered beef tenderloin while Anderson had smoked salmon. They posed for photos just like the rest of the prom-goers. Then they went to the dance.

But when the 6-foot, 185-pound Lofy showed up in a dress, he was turned away by teachers, he said.

He went back to his car, put a tan-and-black plaid leisure suit over the dress and was allowed inside. Once inside, Lofy shed the leisure suit during a dance-off.

That's when the school's security guard escorted him to the door.

Lofy says that when he showed up at school on Monday, the school liaison police officer issued the $249 disorderly conduct ticket.

Lofy doesn't understand all the hubbub.

"I wasn't hurting anybody," he says. "I wasn't preventing anyone from learning in a school environment."

He says friends plan to protest the school's actions today. Some male students have vowed to wear dresses and some of the female students will be wearing suit coats and ties, Lofy says.
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First, look at the picture. Lofy is clinically delusional if he believes he looked like Marilyn Monroe.

Other than that, I tend to agree with Lofy on this matter.

It seems strange to me that Badger High School officials came down so hard on him. I don't see what's so horrible about Lofy's choice to attend prom with a gay friend, while wearing a dress.

Is it a goofy thing to do? Yes.

Did he seek to draw attention to himself? Yes.

Did he defy the school administrators' warnings? Yes.

Did he deserve to be ticketed, suspended, and banned from his last track meet? No.

Although Lofy should suffer some consequences for failing to comply with the guidelines set by the school, the punishment does not fit the crime.

Being ticketed for disorderly conduct is ridiculous. A three day suspension seems harsh as well. A detention or even a week of detention would be more in order than suspension. As far as Lofy's participation in the track meet goes, I don't know what the team's rules are regarding eligibility to compete. If other students are banned from participating because of similar behavioral violations at school, then that might be an appropriate penalty.

I really don't see how Lofy's attire would "ruin" the prom for anyone else. Were girls crying that the night they'd been dreaming of was destroyed because Lofy showed up in a dress? I doubt it.

Moreover, I disagree with the associate principal's contention that, "It's not your prom." It most certainly is Lofy's prom, just as it's every other student's prom.

Lofy is getting the last laugh. This local story is now a national story. Lake Geneva Badger High went way overboard in its punishment for his stunt. The school is looking a lot sillier than Lofy did on prom night.